FARWELL – Friday’s District 4 Class A first-round matchup was sure to produce a first.
Bucktail was hosting its first-ever District 4 playoff game, and just its second-ever overall playoff game, with an Eastern Conference semifinal in 2011 being the only other. It was also Bucktail’s first appearance in the District 4 playoffs since 2017.
Northwest, meanwhile, was looking for its first-ever District 4 playoff win and its first playoff victory overall since 2014, when it won a District 2 Class 2A semifinal over Wilkes-Barre GAR, a school that has since closed.
As is often the case in postseason football when two teams are evenly matched, it was just a few plays and sequences that made up the difference. On Friday, those plays and sequences favored the Rangers, as their improvement from throughout the season finally showed up on the scoreboard as Northwest won its first playoff game in nine years with a 36-30 win over the home-standing Bucks.
“We finally played the way we’re capable of playing. We played four quarters, we played defense when we needed to,” said Bonzcewski. “It makes it all worthwhile, getting the first playoff win in nine years. This does wonders for the program, and we get to play another week. We need to learn how to win these types of games, and we did tonight. That’s a good team over there. Their skilled kids came after us, but we rose to the challenge and got the job done.”
Northwest, which lost some early-season games largely due to turnovers, corrected that part of its game for the most part toward the second half of the season. But, due to a gauntlet during the last three weeks of the regular season in which it played Troy – the top seed in 2A, as well as Muncy and South Williamsport – two of the top three seeds in Class A, the results of those improvements are absent in the won-loss column.
That is, until Friday. The Rangers, who were 2-8 and the last team into the Class A playoff field, had seven of their eight losses come against playoff teams.
“Our kids are excited and there’s some excitement in the program now,” said Bonzcewski. “It was a tough season. We learned, we grew, we got better as the season went on, and it all came together tonight – finally. You could see them getting better, but it didn’t happen until tonight.”
Two key sequences in the game shifted the momentum and swung the game in favor of the Rangers. The first happened just before halftime. Leading 22-14 late in the second quarter, Northwest punted the ball and downed it at the Bucktail 6-yard line. Needing to just pick up a first down to run out the clock and head into halftime down by just a single score, the Bucks instead elected to throw the ball on second down, hoping to catch Northwest off guard, and Brody Pentz’s pass was picked off by Loegan Diltz, who returned it to the Bucktail 15 with just over a minute to play in the half.
Northwest then capitalized four plays later when Jace McCoy hit Adam Chonko in the end zone for his fourth touchdown pass of the half, which gave the Rangers a 28-14 lead at the half.
Bucktail was able to answer by putting together its longest drive of the game to open the second half, taking up over half the quarter – 6:15 in all – and taking 12 plays to go 57 yards, capped by Pentz’s one-yard touchdown run and two-point conversion, making it 28-22.
The teams then traded big stops on fourth down, but Northwest’s would end up being bigger, and what the Rangers did after their big stop would put the game nearly out of reach.
Northwest was stopped near midfield on a fourth-and-2 when the Bucks stuffed Cole Hudack a yard shy of the first down. From there, Bucktail drove all the way down to the Northwest 5-yard line, and had a third-and-4 from there, poised to tie the game or take the lead. But the Rangers stopped Pentz for a yard gain on third down and then threw him for a one-yard loss on fourth down to thwart Bucktail’s attempt to take the lead.
“I’ll put that on me. I saw something I thought was there and went for it twice, ran the same play twice but told our quarterback to do something else with it on fourth down, so that’s one I wish I had back and will think about for a while,” said Bucktail coach Frank Sutliff.
Northwest’s offense then proceeded to go 95 yards in nine plays, and shifted the momentum with what was essentially a two-score swing when Nicholas Stevens took the handoff on a fullback dive but got loose for a 47-yard touchdown to put the Rangers up two scores, 36-22, with 7:54 remaining – rather than Bucktail potentially tying or taking the lead.
Bucktail refused to go away, however, as Pentz hit Braylon Fantaski for his second touchdown of the night, a 23-yarder to cap a nine-play, 60-yard drive and pull the Bucks within six points after another successful two-point conversion at the 5:00 mark.
Northwest was able to pick up a pair of first downs to chew up a good portion of the remaining time on the clock, but was forced to punt with just :35 left. The Rangers then stood strong at the end, forcing Pentz into a pair of incompletions, and then sacking him on third and fourth downs to end the game.
“If we just had a few more minutes and could run the ball – we’re not built for big plays,” said Sutliff.
In addition to the swing at the end of the first half, the Rangers built their halftime lead largely due to McCoy’s four first-half touchdown passes. The junior signal caller 18-of-23 passes for 178 yards, at one time completing 11 consecutive passes in the first half, and threw for 144 of those yards in the first half. He was picked off on his first pass of the game on Northwest’s first play from scrimmage, and from there would only throw four incompletions the remainder of the night.
After being picked off on his first pass attempt, McCoy and the Rangers did not commit another turnover on the night, and would proceed to score on three of their next four possessions, including turning Bucktail’s lone turnover of the game into a touchdown just before the half.
Things were clicking on all cylinders so well for the Rangers that their running game, which often found it tough to gain many yards in several of its regular season games, managed 154 yards on the night. Even more impressive was that 1-8 of those came in the second half, exactly when Northwest needed to run the ball to move the chains and keep the clock running with the lead.
“We did what we needed to do to win, and credit the coaching staff and the kids – the coaching staff for getting them ready to play and the kids for playing the game plan and playing their hearts out,” said Bonzcewski. “They really put it all on the line tonight and everyone contributed this week.”
McCoy did most of his damage through the air in the first half, as he threw for 144 of his 178 yards in the opening half. His interception didn’t hurt the Rangers as they forced the Bucks into a three-and-out and then took over at the Bucktail 32 after a nice 17-yard punt return by Adam Chonko.
Six plays later, McCoy hit Nicholas Stevens in the end zone for a nicely thrown 15-yard touchdown pass.
The Bucks answered right back by putting together a nine-play, 68-yard drive that took nearly half of the quarter and was capped by Tanner Pettingill’s 5-yard run.
McCoy then engineered an 11-play, 68-yard drive that took 5:11 and ended with another touchdown pass to Stevens, this one on a halfback screen, to put the Rangers up 14-6 with 7:46 left in the second quarter.
It was then Bucktail’s turn to answer, and the Bucks hit on a big play as Pentz his Fantaski on a receiver screen, and Fantaski did the rest by taking it 57 yards for a touchdown, tying the game 14-14 after the two-point conversion.
The Rangers then turned in their own big play on a third-and-13 play, when McCoy’s pass was tipped by a defender right in front of his intended receiver Trevor Dietz, but the ball still made its way into Dietz’s hands, who turned around and turned it into a 47-yard touchdown pass, avoiding several defenders on his way into the end zone.
For Bucktail, Pentz led the way with 164 yards of total offense and accounted for three touchdowns, throwing for two and rushing for one. Fantaski caught both of Pentz’s touchdown passes and had three catches for 78 yards, taking one touchdown for 57 yards in the first half.
“Pentz was difficult to cover following the fullback, who was just running downhill and the quarterback was right behind him,” said Bonzcewski. “We made some adjustments defensively with our linemen to try to slow it down and it helped and we got it where we needed it to be in the second half.”
“They came back in the second half and really scraped and clawed, did everything you can ask a team to do,” said Sutliff. “Northwest came out and had a good game plan and they hustled. I knew they were underrated coming in because of their schedule, which was very tough. They wanted it a little bit more early, and then we woke up in the second half, made some defensive adjustments, and played a lot better.”
Northwest 36, Bucktail 30
Northwest (3-8) 8 20 0 8 – 36
Bucktail (5-5) 6 8 8 8 – 30
First quarter
6:14 – (N) Nicholas Stevens 15-yard pass from Jace McCoy (Chonko pass from McCoy), 6-32, 2:58
:57 – (B) Tanner Pettingill 5-yard run (run failed), 9-68, 5:17
Second quarter
7:46 – (N) Nicholas Stevens 4-yard pass from Jace McCoy (pass failed), 11-68, 5:11
6:32 – (B) Braylon Fantaski 57-yard pass from Brody Pentz (Yachymiak pass from Pentz), 3-55, 1:14
5:11 – (N) Trevor Dietz 47-yard pass from Jace McCoy (Biller pass from McCoy), 3-44, 1:21
:22 – (N) Adam Chonko 4-yard pass from Jace McCoy (pass failed), 3-15, :40
Third quarter
5:45 – (B) Brody Pentz 1-yard run (Pentz run), 12-57, 6:15
Fourth quarter
7:54 – (N) Nicholas Stevens 47-yard run (Dietz pass from McCoy), 9-95, 4:36
5:00 – (B) Braylon Fantaski 23-yard pass from Brody Pentz (Pentz run), 9-60, 2:54
Statistics
N B
First downs 20 18
Rushes-net yards 29-154 43-186
Passing yardage 178 89
Passing 18-23-4-1 4-10-2-1
Fumbles-lost 3-0 0-0
Penalties-yards 8-57 5-30
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Northwest: Cole Hudack (9-35), Nicholas Stevens (7-61-1), Adam Chonko (5-51), Jace McCoy (5-(-2)), Andrew Bonzcewski (2-12), TEAM (1-(-3)); Bucktail: Brody Pentz (21-75-1), Tanner Pettingill (9-29-1), Braylon Fantaski (7-66), Brett Mason (6-16)
PASSING: Northwest: Jace McCoy (18-23-178-4-1); Bucktail: Brody Pentz (4-10-89-2-1), Braylon Fantaski (0-1-0-0-0)
RECEIVING: Northwest: Trevor Dietz (5-83-1), Cole Hudack (4-26), Nicholas Stevens (3-25-2), Andrew Bonzcewski (2-19), Adam Chonko (2-15-1), Branden Biller (2-10); Bucktail: Braylon Fantaski (3-78-2), Brett Mason (1-11)
